Nursing Home Staff Steal Resident’s Morphine
May 23, 2014 |
Many age related medical conditions require pain control and symptom management through prescription drugs. Many older adults take multiple medications at the same time, often called a prescription cocktail. Each medication comes from a licensed physician or specialist because the patient needs it. When medication use raises safety concerns, families often find nursing home abuse attorneys in Chicago to review whether proper care and oversight are in place.
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Many of the medications prescribed for pain management and cancer treatment are considered controlled substances. This means that the substance, such as Oxycontin, Lortab, or morphine, can be highly addictive. When nursing home residents need these kinds of medications, the medications are supplied to on-site pharmacies at nursing home facilities and then distributed to the appropriate residents during medication administration. However, many nursing homes are understaffed, including the on-site pharmacies, which can leave these addictive substances easily accessible to unmonitored nursing home staff members who have substance abuse problems. The availability and accessibility of these highly addictive substances may be too great of a temptation, which could lead to criminal activity, such as theft of a resident’s medications. When nursing home staff members steal medications from residents, it is a form of nursing home abuse.
Consider, for example, a recent news report about a Michigan nursing home staffer stealing pain medication for a resident. At the end of April, a scandal broke out at the Hillcrest Nursing Center located in North Muskegon, Michigan, when a nurse named Ruth Ellen Everett was accused of stealing a resident’s morphine. After a two-month-long investigation into the nurse and her activities at work, she was finally arrested and charged with abuse of a nursing home patient and larceny.
Or, a recent federal case involving a Kentucky nurse who was accused of stealing powerful pain medications from patients. According to investigators, the nurse secretly removed narcotics meant for vulnerable residents, replacing them with saline to cover up the theft. He was later indicted on charges of tampering with consumer products and obtaining controlled substances by fraud (Justice.gov).
Cases like this highlight a sobering truth: when trusted caregivers act with neglect or abuse, the people who suffer most are elderly patients who depend on them for safety and compassion.
Medication Theft is a Growing Problem in The United States
There are many different techniques used by addicted staffers to get a hold of resident’s medications. For example, addict staffers might:
- Call in prescriptions that the resident does not need, no longer needs, or only needs occasionally;
- Forge medication logs to indicate medication was administered when it was in fact not administered to the resident; or
- Snatch a few pills from residents’ medication cups when no one is watching, or if the resident is too senile to notice that he or she is short a few pills.
With so many understaffed nursing homes in the United States, prescription medication theft is a growing problem. The good news is, addicted staffers who steal from residents ultimately do get caught; however, the victim residents must suffer needlessly until the abusive and thieving staffer is discovered.
Contact a Nursing Home Abuse Attorney
When a nursing home resident’s prescription medications go missing, it is likely a sign of abuse. Someone somewhere knows the whereabouts of the missing medication or should be able to locate records indicating why the medication is not available for administration to the resident. If you are concerned that nursing home staff is stealing from your loved one who resides in an Illinois nursing home, please do not hesitate and contact an experienced nursing home abuse lawyer. We at The Rooth Law Firm are ready and available to assist you. Call us today at (847) 869-9100, or reach out to us online for a free consultation.
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